Si loin, si proche!

I recommend this film to all the jaded and cynical people of the world. It will touch the core of your heart and give you a spiritual yearning for that which we cannot see. When Cassiel falls to earth he can finally touch, feel, hear and experience the feelings of loneliness and joy. He finds his existence on earth in Berlin difficult and finds it hard to comprehend the swift passing of time and the limited outlook of the individual who can only see their own reality in how it affects them. Natassja Kinski who plays Angel Raphaela is on hand to offer comfort and solace to Cassiel when he begins to despair. The sweeping contrasts between black & white and colour add profound depth to this movie, as do the real people who play themselves : Gorbachev, Lou Reed and Peter Falk. Wim Wenders who directed this movie is a foresighted genius of compassion and ethereal visions.

Wim Wenders may not be taken seriously by Hollywood (or critics) anymore, but he seems able to pull in actors and musicians at will. Great soundtrack.

Great cast as well. Check out Horst Bucholz (sp?) here and in the 1962 comedy "One, Two, Three" with James Cagney. All the "mortals", especially Bruno Ganz, seem almost gleeful. Only Willem Dafoe appears to be in a "serious German movie".

I may not be qualified to comment on the real value of this movie because "Wings of Desire" is in my permanent top 5. It probably benefits from the glow of it's precursor more than any other sequel, because I really wanted to catch up with these characters. I smiled every time I saw a familiar face.

That said, it takes about an hour to settle in but finally gets sort of serious. Watching this and "Until the End of The World" (also ripped by critics) I get the feeling Wenders was either being lazy or just freestyling to avoid boredom. Looks like fun from here.

This film is about passion. A flicker on the eyes of an angel, our brief lives are as unique and intense as they are ephemeral, and time itself is the fire that burn our passions and desires. Complex and multicultural, the film is disturbingly deep as it is light, a contrast of innocence and evil, showing how the Faust compromise can be present and right/wrong can become difficult to define. Also, the participation of Lou Reed and Peter Falk as themselves bring Faust to reality, as a mirror to ourselves. The deeply german Wenders pay a compliment to Gorbatchev for the fall of the Wall, maybe telling us the duality of time, that can be good and evil like the faces of a coin. Wonderful piece of art.

I can say this movie is one of the best movies I have ever watched (and I watched a lot of them). The roles were very well interpreted by good actors. Even when they are no actors at all, as Mikhail Gorbachyov who appears in a scene. Many things make this movie special. In it five languages are being spoken. Nevertheless it doesn't really matter. The protagonists can understand what is being said as though language difference is not that relevant for humans to understand each other. The pictures are the usual great Wim Wenders pictures. Black and white pictures indicate the coolness of the world of angels while colors indicate how colorful the world could be for humans (if they can see it!). It is an analysis of the relationship of man with the world around. Humans think that they are controlling the world, but the world is controlling their lives in fact. It shows how blind we can be in contemplating the beauty of the world around us. In this matter one could mention the movie called "The awakenings" (1990) although the two movies are in most aspects different. It is a movie about an angel who wants to become human in order to be able to understand humans, and how he gets into a complicated life. It helps a lot to see "The wings of desire" where the story between angels and humans started. Some things are hard to understand when you don't know the first movie. This movie is also an analysis of time. Emit Flesti (read backward Time itself) is a very interesting character that can communicate with both angels and humans, and who speaks about almost always about time and its meaning. For me he was also a mix of Lucifer and the death angel as well. The background of the whole story is Berlin after the fall of the wall, whereas "The wings of desire" took place before the end of the cold war.

This movie makes a genius use of fantasy to analyze our lives. Its main message is : "We (the angels) are not the message. We are the messengers and the message is love".

Although it has received mixed reviews by critics, this follow-up to "Der Himmel über Berlin" (1987) is a deeply moving and beautiful film. Wenders explores the polarities which exist in a newly unified Berlin and in so doing examines some of the polarities which exist in life itself. As "Cassiel," Otto Sander has given us another endearing Wenders protagonist who learns all too quickly about what life (and time) can present upon an individual. Laurent Petitgand's stunning musical score enhances the sublime images photographed by Jürgen Jürges. Although "Der Himmel über Berlin" (1987), is an almost mandatory pre-requisite, "In weiter Ferne, so nah!" (1993) is a vastly different film which proves itself in its own right.

Cinema has produced many wonderful films over the past century or so, but when looking at the various elements of film combined here, there is no other movie which touches me quite so positively, quite as deeply as this one.